TONY MCCOY is to start riding out again as his eagerly-awaited return to the saddle gathers pace.
The 12-times champion jockey has been given the all-clear by his own surgeon with the Cheltenham Festival just two weeks away.
He now just needs to satisfy British Horseracing Authority's chief medical officer Dr Michael Turner before he can make plans to return to race-riding. "I've got to see Dr Turner, but my own doctor's very happy with it," said McCoy.
"He (Dr Turner) may want to get an independent view of it, but I'd be hoping that the man who operated on me knows what he's on about. I'm going to start riding out in the morning. I'm going to ride out first lot for Carl (Llewellyn) in the morning and then I'm going to Jonjo's (O'Neill) on Wednesday."
McCoy has been sidelined since January 12th after he suffered a back injury falling from Arnold Layne in the Classic Chase at Warwick and had surgery on a damaged vertebrae.
His therapy has been aided by kriotherapy treatment, which involves stepping into a compressed compartment, in which temperatures drop to around minus 130 degrees and helps improve blood circulation.
McCoy added: "It could have been a lot longer, but it's gone pretty good. I've been very lucky in that I've had no pain with it from day one and I've done a lot of work in the last two weeks."
Gee Bradburne, McCoy's personal assistant, said: "Dr Turner will be sent a report and he decides whether to pass him fit there and then or whether he wants an independent review, which sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, but given the timescale in which he has come back it is a possibility.
"Everything went well this morning, the scan was good, Mr James Wilson-McDonald, his surgeon, is very happy and the reports have been sent."
Dr Turner said: "We'll review the reports and then decide what happens from there. An independent review might be possible depending on whether the consensus view is that what he's doing is the right thing to be doing at the moment.
"His specialist is making a view with regard to what Tony is telling him. My view is what the requirements of racing are that his specialist doesn't know. We make a decision based on that and then we take it from there. Until I see the reports and talk to him, I can't say when he will be racing again."
Stan James have introduced a market as to how many winners the champion jockey will ride at the festival and make none and one their 5 to 2 joint-favourites.
Stan James bet: None 5-2, one 5-2, two 7-2, three 4-1, four 7-1, five or more 16-1.
